[Durham INC] Bull City Connector

Tue Jun 7 09:01:37 EDT 2011

I forwarded the email from Ken Gasch to the TTA Board of Trustees and  
"senior management."

Two trustees proposed solutions that involved use of smart phones, as  
best as I could tell. While a large number of people reading this email
may have smart phones, this may not be the case for Central Durham  
residents likely to ride buses.

The issue of on-time operations may come up in a TTA committee meeting  
an hour from now.

I recommend that folks convey concerns on DATA performance to Durham  
council members, especially the Mayor.

Ed Harrison

On Jun 7, 2011, at 8:55 AM, Kevin Davis wrote:

> Ditto.  Last night I decided to get some refrigerated items from  
> Whole Foods, counting on the bus leaving Duke at 9:20pm to pick me  
> up at the Ninth St. stop going eastbound.  At 9:20 or so there were  
> still passengers waiting to go westbound from in front of Whole  
> Foods; that bus was running late.
>
> We're not the first people to complain about this.  I had presumed  
> getting Triangle Transit involved in the operation would have meant  
> better on-time performance against the schedule....
>
> --
> Kevin Davis
> ksdavis at gmail.com
> www.bullcityrising.com
> (919) 323-8432
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 7:11 AM, Ken Gasch <Ken at kengasch.com> wrote:
> I don't know how to get other people to ride. I do know that we  
> would ride it a lot more if it was on time. Just last Friday night,  
> my family waited 11 minutes past the posted arrival time for a stop  
> and just decided to walk in the end. We then walked the route for 5  
> blocks and never saw it. When it runs on time, we will ride it.
>
>
> print
> Free bus ridership falling short
> 06.05.11 - 11:05 pm
> By Ray Gronberg
>
> gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648
>
> DURHAM -- Ridership on the Durham Area Transit Authority's downtown- 
> to-Duke free shuttle service has settled into a weekday average in  
> the 1,400-to-1,500 range, short of the expectations backers had for  
> it going in.
>
> The numbers have Durham officials looking for ways to better market  
> the Bull City Connector, particularly to folks at Duke University  
> and to people who visit downtown on nights and weekends.
>
> "The positive is that [the average count] appears to be very  
> stable," city Transportation Director Mark Ahrendsen said. "Our  
> charge is to try to make more people aware of how they can use the  
> service."
>
> Officials launched the connector -- which links Duke, downtown and  
> the Golden Belt business center -- last August with heavy fanfare.
>
> The idea is that riders can count on seeing one of the cantaloupe- 
> colored buses pass any given stop along the Main Street corridor  
> every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes nights and  
> Saturdays.
>
> Grant money, subsidies from Duke University and revenue from vehicle- 
> registration fees are helping pay the shuttle's annual operating  
> expenses.
>
> When they launched it last August, officials said they were hoping  
> the connector would be serving 1,125 riders a day after a month,  
> 1,575 riders a day after six months and 2,035 riders a day after a  
> year.
>
> Ridership growth met the one-month target, but it fell short of the  
> six-month mark and as of mid-May wasn't on track to hit the one-year  
> goal.
>
> The average boarding counts grew steadily from the connector's Aug.  
> 16 launch until just before Thanksgiving, when they slumped. The  
> numbers stayed down through the holidays, only beginning to climb  
> again after the start of the new year.
>
> But it took until late January and early February for the average to  
> make up for the lost ground. Since then, it's held fairly steady  
> around the 1,400-a-day mark, though the general trend remains  
> modestly upward.
>
> From talking to riders, it seems clear that there's a disconnect  
> between general awareness that DATA operates the connector and  
> specific knowledge of how the shuttle works, Durham Public Affairs  
> Director Beverly Thompson said.
>
> "There are some people who don't know it's free, they don't know  
> what the schedules are, or where it takes them exactly," she said.  
> "People know there's a Bull City Connector, but they're not sure  
> what it does or what the service is. We have to figure out how to  
> bridge that."
>
> Saturday ridership is more prone to fluctuations than the weekday  
> average, but usually runs somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the  
> weekday count. Ahrendsen said the Saturday highs tend to coincide  
> with special events at Duke and in downtown.
>
> The single-day peak for boardings on the connector came on April 14,  
> a Thursday, when drivers reported serving 1,892 riders.
>
> The spring run-up in gasoline prices didn't seem to have any drastic  
> impact on the numbers, at least none clearly different from the  
> changes that came after the holidays as people got back into their  
> normal routines.
>
> Other transit providers in the area, Triangle Transit most notably,  
> have reported increases in ridership this spring that they think  
> were a response to the rise in gas prices.
>
> The ridership numbers were current as of May 14. Ahrendsen's staff  
> keeps track of the counts and from time to time forwards a  
> spreadsheet containing them to higher-ups in city government.
>
> The connector all told had served 267,490 riders from Aug. 16 to May  
> 14.
>
> Ahrendsen said officials "are comfortable with the service in how  
> it's currently provided," meaning that they think its routing and  
> schedule are right.
>
> City officials are convinced they can secure more riders among Duke  
> faculty, staff and students, in part because parking on campus is  
> both limited and costly. They also think their counterparts at Duke  
> will help with marketing because the school long-term would like to  
> avoid the costs associated with building more parking decks.
>
> The shuttle helps link the campus to Duke operations based downtown.
>
> The other growth opportunity city officials see is in convincing  
> more residents and visitors to Durham to use the service to get to  
> restaurants, clubs and other social hotspots downtown.
>
> Thompson said her staff will work with officials at Duke and  
> Triangle Transit to plan the revised marketing effort. They hope to  
> have a plan together in a month, so they can be ready when most  
> students at Duke and N.C. Central University return in August.
> © heraldsun.com 2011
> Ken Gasch
> REALTOR, Seagroves Realty
> Contractor, TurnLight Partners, Ltd.
>
> C: 919.475.8866
> F: 866.229.4267
>
> www.KenGasch.com
>
> Follow my latest restoration at http://wheelerhouse.blogspot.com/
>
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